In my student teaching placement, I currently have two different students who have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These students have at times been a pleasure to work with, while at other times they have presented a significant instructional challenge. I’ve been especially concerned about them lately as I’ve been thinking about how they will handle an upcoming research assignment. My master teacher and I have been brainstorming together ways in which we might be able to accommodate these students’ learning difficulties, so I was happy to discover an article in APU’s database which discusses strategies for helping students with ADHD on extended writing tasks.
Citing several different studies, Laura Thomson Jacobson and Robert Reid note that, “...students with ADHD symptoms wrote compositions that were substantially shorter, had lower quality, and included more errors than controls. (Jacobson & Reid, 2010) Students with ADHD tended to only complete shorter essays that were often lacking in word complexity and missing essential elements. “Students with ADHD may also struggle because of executive function (EF) deficits...” (Jacobson & Reid, 2010) These EF functions assist with essential cognitive processes such as pre-planning and self-evaluation. In other words, the break down of EF function prevents or prohibits many ADHD students from succeeding on process papers because they have difficulty with some of the essential processing needed to break these assignments down on their own. Therefore any task that requires self-regulation and/or individual goal-setting will be a significant challenge for students with ADHD. (Jacobson & Reid, 2010)
Jacobsen and Reid suggest following the SRSD, self-regulated strategy development, model to help ADHD students with extended writing tasks. SRSD is somewhat of an umbrella term which generally refers to a process of explicitly teaching learning strategies to students in a six stage process. This six stage process (develop background knowledge, discuss it, model it, memorize it, support it, establish independent practice) generally follows the directed instruction model of lesson planning. However, instead of core content, SRSD refers to teaching students strategies that help students self-regulate and set goals on their own. ADHD students in particular can benefit from this approach, because through SRSD students are explicitly taught learning strategies that will help them develop key skills for success. SRSD focuses on four specific skills/learning strategies: goal-setting, self-monitoring, self-talk in which students use spoken language to talk themselves through an assignment and maintain focus, and self-reinforcement where students reward or reinforce their own behavior. (Iris Center)
In their study Jacobsen and Reid identified a positive correlation between ADHD students being in instructed in SRSD strategies and measurable improvements in writing performance. Because of this, I’m planning to try and incorporate some of these strategies into my instruction as I plan my upcoming research unit. One of the specific strategies mentioned in the article was the S.T.O.P. method which is an acronym standing for the following: Suspend Judgement, Take a side, Organize an idea, and Plan more while you write. Researchers also made use of the D.A.R.E strategy: Develop a topic sentence, Add supporting detail, Reject possible arguments from the other side, and End with a conclusion. (Jacobson & Reid, 2010) I believe that given enough time to model and rehearse these processes that my ADHD students, and really all of my students in general, can have some success using these strategies. It seems from reading this study that focusing on breaking writing down into smaller accomplishable goals is key for not only ADHD students, but any students who struggles to be a self-starter or who has difficulty focusing for any extended period of time.
Reference
Jacobson, L., & Reid, R. (2010). Improving the Persuasive Essay Writing of High School Students With ADHD. Exceptional Children, 76(2), 157-174.
Citing several different studies, Laura Thomson Jacobson and Robert Reid note that, “...students with ADHD symptoms wrote compositions that were substantially shorter, had lower quality, and included more errors than controls. (Jacobson & Reid, 2010) Students with ADHD tended to only complete shorter essays that were often lacking in word complexity and missing essential elements. “Students with ADHD may also struggle because of executive function (EF) deficits...” (Jacobson & Reid, 2010) These EF functions assist with essential cognitive processes such as pre-planning and self-evaluation. In other words, the break down of EF function prevents or prohibits many ADHD students from succeeding on process papers because they have difficulty with some of the essential processing needed to break these assignments down on their own. Therefore any task that requires self-regulation and/or individual goal-setting will be a significant challenge for students with ADHD. (Jacobson & Reid, 2010)
Jacobsen and Reid suggest following the SRSD, self-regulated strategy development, model to help ADHD students with extended writing tasks. SRSD is somewhat of an umbrella term which generally refers to a process of explicitly teaching learning strategies to students in a six stage process. This six stage process (develop background knowledge, discuss it, model it, memorize it, support it, establish independent practice) generally follows the directed instruction model of lesson planning. However, instead of core content, SRSD refers to teaching students strategies that help students self-regulate and set goals on their own. ADHD students in particular can benefit from this approach, because through SRSD students are explicitly taught learning strategies that will help them develop key skills for success. SRSD focuses on four specific skills/learning strategies: goal-setting, self-monitoring, self-talk in which students use spoken language to talk themselves through an assignment and maintain focus, and self-reinforcement where students reward or reinforce their own behavior. (Iris Center)
In their study Jacobsen and Reid identified a positive correlation between ADHD students being in instructed in SRSD strategies and measurable improvements in writing performance. Because of this, I’m planning to try and incorporate some of these strategies into my instruction as I plan my upcoming research unit. One of the specific strategies mentioned in the article was the S.T.O.P. method which is an acronym standing for the following: Suspend Judgement, Take a side, Organize an idea, and Plan more while you write. Researchers also made use of the D.A.R.E strategy: Develop a topic sentence, Add supporting detail, Reject possible arguments from the other side, and End with a conclusion. (Jacobson & Reid, 2010) I believe that given enough time to model and rehearse these processes that my ADHD students, and really all of my students in general, can have some success using these strategies. It seems from reading this study that focusing on breaking writing down into smaller accomplishable goals is key for not only ADHD students, but any students who struggles to be a self-starter or who has difficulty focusing for any extended period of time.
Reference
Jacobson, L., & Reid, R. (2010). Improving the Persuasive Essay Writing of High School Students With ADHD. Exceptional Children, 76(2), 157-174.
Star legacy Resources Models, Iris Center, Vanderbilt University - SRSD: Using learning strategies to enhance student learning . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/srs/chalcycle.htm